trying till I get it right

Curry Up And Try This!

Just before my husband, Erik, and I started dating, he was privileged to have spent several months living in Southern India teaching a Swamiji conversational English through experiencing day to day life together. This Swamiji is a religious leader who truly set aside all worldly pursuits devoting himself completely to highest spiritual realization and service to all. In India specifically, he was often viewed as an all-powerful, a healer, preacher and doctor to name a few. My middle-America raised husband was immersed into the culture living in the compound eating meals together, meditating and praying together. He traveled with the Swami and often times participated in festivals and ceremonies. As you can imagine, this experience was truly rich and transformative for him physically, mentally and spiritual. (We often argue he could write a book!) It continues to shape him and our family even today and we are ever so grateful!

This post, however, is not about the experience – rather the culinary impacts to our family. Indian food or Indian flavored food conjures wonderful memories for Erik and has had a common place in our household sense before we were married. When food allergies were introduced – we could no longer visit our favorite restaurants and our recipes had to be revamped. My boys especially love Butter Chicken, often times called Chicken Masala. It’s a broiled chicken cooked in a tomato, butter sauce with cashews and raisins… so good! This recipe is a dairy, gluten, garlic, soy, egg free version intended to feed a crowd or provide leftovers for lunches. You can easily add or subtract vegetables or even replace chicken with lentils and chickpeas to make vegetarian.